Well, the shop is doing really well, the takings are good, the donations of items are brilliant, the appearance is superb and altogether a huge ‘well done’ to the ladies for the hard work they’ve done (and are still doing).

The opening hours are weekdays 9am till 4pm and Saturdays 10am till 4pm. If you’ve anything to donate to help the cats you can either drop it in or phone Chris on 874958 or Brenda on 793335 and they can arrange collection.

We really need volunteers to man stalls at events on Saturdays as we now have the shop. If you can spare an hour or two now and again it will really help the cats. We also need to transport goods from the shop to events and back, so if you can help with this please phone Joyce on 683675 or the ladies listed above. With our policy of never spending more than absolutely necessary on non-cat items, we are trying to avoid having a van.

Although we have home visitors we can always use more. You can cover just your area so there’s the minimum expense; the more we have the less burdened each one is. If you can help with this please either mail me back or phone 873968.

A couple of points about the above. Firstly, thanks to everyone who offered to help at the street collection and secondly, it’s still not too late to enter the sponsored walk. Either mail me or call Joyce on 683675.

In the last few weeks we seem to have a number of young cats go missing that had not been neutered. By putting off neutering you do run this risk, along with the obvious one (males getting fight wounds and females returning pregnant). Many people still believe that females should have a litter before being spayed, but it is now accepted this is not so. There is help out there so please phone Penny on 778669 or mail me for advice.

It is a good time to remind everyone of the danger that some plants pose to our pets. The case last year of a beautiful boy dying from biting a lily is only the tip of the problem. Check new plants, both indoor and out, for pet-friendliness before you pop them in. Also, it’s worth just mentioning to be careful with slug pellets and weed killers.

A really big thank you to everyone that has sent in donations, given a home to a cat or helped in any way, every little thing really makes a difference to those cats that have no one to look out for them.